THE PARTY

The Party. In 1968, film director Blake Edwards and comedian genius Peter Sellers drew the blue print on how to succeed at any party.

The Party tap into a near-universal anxiety: who hasn’t, like Bakshi, arrived at a party or gathering and felt somehow out of place?

Peter Sellers is Hrundi V. Bakshi, a painfully polite actor from India who courteously and delicately sabotages the evening of several dozen guests and an elephant. He is assisted by a hilariously drunken butler (Steve Franken).

The story has to do with a party in the home of a Hollywood studio chief. Director Blake Edwards begins in low key, with cocktail music tinkling in the background while everyone nods politely and Sellers’ shoe floats over the waterfall in the living room. The insanity gradually escalates; floods of bubbles, and, eventually, an elephant in a pool. The movie descents into ‘60s anarchy.

The score for The Party was composed by Henry Mancini, including the song “Nothing to Lose” played in the film by Claudine Longet.